Japanese

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Japanese Translations

The translation of Japanese requires a sensitivity to cultural differences and sharp accuracy on technical terms. Orange Text is ready with years of experience to make your copy shine in Japanese.

Japanese (JA)

Although Japanese has a reputation of being a formidable language to learn, the pronunciation is relatively simple, with only five vowels and 15 consonants, and the grammar is straight-forward, with almost no irregular forms or exceptions. That being said, the writing system is complex, combining four scripts: the kanji (borrowed from Chinese characters), the hiragana (stylized forms of Chinese characters), the katakana (portions of Chinese characters) and the English alphabet. In addition, there are levels and styles of speech indicating formality and social status. Moreover, as Japanese is generally considered to be unrelated to any language outside of the Japanese archipelago, grammar, vocabulary and cultural nuance require particular attention.

Japanese <> English

The translation of copy between Japanese and English is complex due to many reasons, including typology. Japanese is a subject-object-verb type language while English is a subject-verb-object (SOV) type language. In addition, differences in the way ideas are conveyed, vocabulary and social considerations mean that care is needed to ensure the source meaning is conveyed in a way that is accurate and culturally appropriate.

Japanese <> Chinese

Although Japan and China are in close proximity to one another, the Japanese and Chinese languages are unrelated. While both Chinese and English are subject-verb-object type languages, Japanese is SOV. Also, not only do they have different sentence structures, but Japanese has pitch accent, which is quite distinct from the tones used in Chinese. Culturally, there are many influences shared between the two cultures, such as Buddhism and Confucianism, but such traditions have diverged sharply over the centuries since they were conveyed from the Asian continent to Japan. One advantage when translating between Japanese and Chinese is that much of the Japanese writing system uses characters and vocabularly borrowed from Chinese, though again care must be taken as characters often have differ in meaning or nuance when used in Japanese and Chinese.

Harajuku

Harajuku (原宿)

Osaka (大阪) at night

Fushimi Inari in Kyoto

Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) in Kyoto